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December 22, 2005

Linksys Latest Models: Your Experience?

Has your latest Linksys caused you grief or joy? I ask this question not because I have statistical evidence, but rather anecdotal. The last two Linksys devices I purchased have operated erratically. I advised a colleague to buy two (for bridging) recently and he could not get either to stop crashing even with the latest firmware. Checking forums, I'm seeing similar stories.

Linksys has moved from Linux to VxWorks (a proprietary operating system) for its latest routers and may be gradually transitioning its devices. The firmware these gateways are running are the first releases, and may be in the process of significant revision.

If you're seeing problems with a WRT54G v5 (check the underside) or other new Linksys equipment (check the version number), post a comment below. Please post, too, if your gateways are working perfectly fine. I'll post a summary if I get many posts.

Update: On June 8, 2006, Tim Higgins of Tom's Networking posted an interesting article comparing performance of the WRT54GL (essentially version 4 of the WRT54G, still running Linux) and the WRT54G v5. Higgins focused on performance, not reliability; I'm hoping he provides a case study of a stock unit's reliability, too.

111 Comments

We had a terrible experience with a v5 on the network. Took a while to figure out that this box was the problem. Crashed all the time, bandwidth was unstable, made us crazy. We replaced it with an older version

I just bought a v4 WRT54GS. I really wanted to run custom firmware on it, so I couldn't buy the WRT54G, and the GS with a discount was the same as a GL.

The router came home and after figuring out the right trick I got the new firmware loaded. It ran for about 2 days, then the power supply died. Luckily I've got a spare power supply, so I'll reset the firmware and take it back to the store for an exchange.

I've been using the v5 box on my home network (1 desktop, 2 laptops, roadrunner cable) for a month or so with no real problems. I was disappointed when I realized I couldn't use openwrt, but it does what I need it to do. Just basic connectivity, whaddaya want for $50?

I know of several people who have had problems with the wrt54g v5 models. The problems include lockups, reboots, disappearing configs, no port forwarding, and VOIP compatability problems. I understand that this is technically a v1.0 release when you look at the change in software.

The first firmware update has helped quite a bit as they no longer report problems with lockups, reboots, or dissappearing configs. The port forward and VOIP issues still seem to exist. In order to resolve these problems we have had to set the ports up in port triggering as well as port forward. This made the port forwards work including the ones needed for SIP signaling.

I received a Linksys RT41P2-AT when I signed up with Vonage. At first it would lock up every week and have to be reset, but then additional symptoms started to appear 5-10 minutes after rebooting - an inability to respond to DNS queries. It didn't seem to matter whether the router itself was set as the DNS server within DHCP or not - the queries apparently weren't being forwarded.

I retired the RT41P2 and purchased a WRT54GSv4, which I then flashed with devsnap firmware from SVEASOFT. With the new firmware, the router stays up and there are no DNS issues.

I bought a couple of weeks ago WRT54GX and WPC54GX, the router works ok only after firmware upgrade. I am very disappointed with WPC54GX. It has NO LINUX DRIVER ! Such things are no more acceptable today ! Call Linksys tech support..it seems that they are in a hurry...to provide the Linux driver !

Have used Linkysys and D-link routers. Mostly Ok but not the greatest. Last D-Link could not set WPA-lousy phoen support-could not get them to answer the phone.; Linksys routers not stable and support was not hot. Have had a Belkin Pre 802.11n (runs at 108 MBPS)wireless router for months- Costco sells it-Easy set up and no problems till recently. Kept losing sync: Just noticed a Linkysys router I was picking up. Called Belkin; they sent me an e-mail and all I did was to reset the Channel default of 11 and went to channel 8 that I selected.

I have a wired router / firewall and have had terrible experience. First, it would crash it whenever I started Skype. A beta version of firmware fixed that, but recently every time I start a stream from XM Radio it crashes. Poor product testing as far as I'm concerned. Cisco had better step in or risk losing the market.

Have been running a WRT54G v5 for almost 2 weeks with 1.0.4 Linksys code without major problems except that I was blindsided by the loss of the ability to redirect logging (had been using a BEFW11S4 v2). I should have been paying closer attention! WRT54G v5 only supports a web page view of a tiny slice of IN and OUT logging when enabled, plus no timestamping, no resolving addresses and no exporting of a log file. Logging is a critical security feature...crippled in this version. Took 3 Emails to Linksys before I finally researched and found out what was going on myself. Want Linksys to advise of a way to exchange this for...something.

I got a linksys wrt54gs a few months ago to replace my prior generation linksys access point when its power supply failed. The GS has been extremely unreliable. Signal strength varies erratically regardless of whether using DHCP or fixed IP address. When enabled as a DHCP server the unit occasionally fails to assign addresses, or assigns the same address to multiple computers which causes IP conflicts and crashes. Full resets and firmware flashes have not fixed these problems. After testing every configuration possible, I'm done with the product.

As a home user troubleshooter, I've encountered a number of Linksys routers with problems. Ones that have worked for any period without problems are definately in the minority.

So I think the problem is before the current model. Coupled with the customer service problems documented voluminously, support which isn't, and user features declining, it's clear to me that Cisco did not upgrade management. In fact, it seems to have declined with Cisco.

But the user community thrives and hacks us into useful things. Too bad Linksys doesn't get it.

I have a WRT54G. It has been operating for 2 weeks- no problems at all, but i am returning it. They cut the the memory in half and went to a closed operating system without changing the model number. Not right!!!
Tom Quinn

Used to have a WRT54G v4 and it worked fined until after 4 months where it refused to boot. Sent back for warranty and got a replacement unit whis is v5. I am truly dissapointed with this new unit. Always having problem when accessing the config page and need to reboot from time to time to solve this peoblem. My advice, stay away from v5.

I recently purchase a wrt54gs v5 wireless router.I tried to connect my daughter's computer using a wireless usb adapter but could not connect
a regular basis. Hard wired but both of the comnputers could not stay connected on the internet. I am not pleased. Is there software from linksys to correct v5 problems? Do I need
to purchase another brand of router?

[Editor's note: The latest v5 software update didn't solve my problems; it was released just a few weeks ago. You can keep checking back on Linksys's site.-gf]

We have five of the WRT54G Version 4 and have had good experiences. Last week we purchased five of the WRT 54G Version 5. Updated the firmware on all of them. Not one of the five could hold a wireless connection for a full 24 hours. We returned them.

It is interesting to note that Ebay prices on the older versions of WRT54G are almost double the Version 5 pricing. I guess the problems with this box are common knowledge.

Unfortunately, now management will not approve any new Linksys purchases.

Bought a Linksys WRT54G V.5, have had it about 2 weeks, wouldn't stay connected for more then 20 minutes, upgraded the firmware last night and seemed to resolve the issue until the power went out again last night, woke up this morning and took 45 minutes to get back online, but in the area we live in the electric goes out alot, when power came back on we couldn't get back on line, have to turn off the cable modem, router and computer and restart one at a time, in this order, sometimes three times before it will work, plug cable modem in first let power up, then the router until power light is solid, then turn computer back on and let it reboot, then it may come back online, but this is a major pain, now that I got the main computer back online, I can't get the other one to link back to this one, guess I'll have to call Linksys again and waste another hour or so on the phone, to see if I can resolve this issue, if you have any suggestions on a better router plaese feel free to email me, these routers should be recalled and a replacement issued until they resolve this lemon of a router, I think we are going to take this piece of junk back and try something else, do you know of any that work.

I just got the wrt54g v5 a couple weeks ago. My pc that is hardwired doesn't seem to be having to many problems except for some port issues. Then I tried to connect wirelessly. Whoops. I'm getting a SSID broadcast without any signal strength. No wireless connection. I am returning this immediately and am going to seek for a v4 like I used to have. The v4 wasn't perfect, but at least it worked! Since Linksys decided to pull one over on everyone by not changing the model number for the v5, I will be very hesitant in buying Linksys products in the future.

Try dumping new junk on the market as fast as they can. You can no longer find shelves filled with anything but WRT54G v5 units. Which are JUNK!

Briefly I thought that the WRT54GS line would enjoy premium status and be safe. No, no, already the shelves are filling with new version of the GS with serial number CGN7.... This variant also runs the VxWorks OS and will not load Linux alternate firmware.

Party's over gang, move along to a new product. Do not recommend Linksys to any friends unless you want them to complain to you, about how it crashes all the time.

Linksys will continue shuffling off its remaing inventory of WRT54G v4 units by relabelling them as WRT54GL. But don't think for a second that this is anything other than a way to clear out old inventory with some clever PR thrown in. I think it relevant that the contact link on Linksys site shows opensource@linksys.com, but mail sent to there bounces.

I purchase a Linksys WRT54G v5 4 days ago and have been unable to keep it connected to any of the wired ports or the internet connection. I installed the latest firmware release 1.00.6 and still the same problem. I have contacted Linksys 3 times without any success. I returned the router to Wal-Mart for an exchange. It has the same issues. When it quits I can still connect to it from the wireless but the internet port and the hardwire port to my desktop PC are non-functioning. I have followed all of the nonsense suggestions recommended by Linksys tech help. I have used a D-Link router for 2 years and changed to the Linksys so I could use a new notebook PC with a wireless connection. I also have a Static IP address for my internet connection. I think it is time to trade for a D-Link wireless router.

I just got a Linksys WRT54g v5 from Best Buy in the beginning of January. It sucks! It will not stay connected to the Internet for longer than 24 hours straight. It just stops responding and you will be surfing one second, then all of a sudden stop working.

agree completely that the v5 is hopeless. I bought this as a package with the Wireless G 54mbs PCI card with the intent to try out the Secure Easy Setup. The SES didn't work. I contacted support and they stated the firmware needed to be updated from v1.0. I downloaded the firm upgrade OK but the http//192.168.1.1 ip doesn't load properly on an Explorer 6.0 web browser so the router cannot be upgraded. It crashes when my son plays WOW and overall its hard to understand how Cisco can remain a market leader. I have loaded what i need using the installation wizard but still lack some security feature as I haven't figured out how to correct the browser problem. For $100 I can live with the problem for a year and get a new router when the next version replaces 11.g. but not with a Linksys, that's for sure.

Last Wednesday, after 6 days of very intermittent use, my WRT54G v5 finally quit entirely. It stopped forwarding packets, would not bring up the web interface (via the ethernet switch).

Subsequent power cycles and using the reset button to force defaults did no good. The router eventually did produce a plain white web screen, called "Management Mode" (apparently its interface from its boot loader) that asks for a firmware load. While loading the v5's 1.00.6 firmware, the router would just stop communicating in mid load.

The router has been problematic since I got it. It would stop forwarding packets to the WAN interface every 1-2 hours. What is strange is that both both sides of the WAN interface were ICMP pingable. Via the web interface, the routing table was still correct. The only remedy was to power cycle the router to get the WAN interface up and running again.

I flashed to 1.00.6 firmware after the router's second day of life. The problem with the WAN interface not forawding packet still persisted.

My initial call to Linksys support was not much help. I was told to power down the router, hold in the reset button to force router defaults and to reload my stored router config. That did not fix the problem.

When the router went down hard last Wednesday, Linksys tech support said to return the router to the vendor and ask for a v4 (or below) unit instead. Unfortunately, the vendor only has the v5 model on the shelf. I contacted Linksys sales, who put me in contact with Linksys customer support. Linksys customer support refused to exchange the router with a known stable working unit (as per the Linksys tech support's own recommendation). So I called Linksys sales back, who escalated me to a Linksys customer service supervisor...

I plan to call the Linksys supervisor tomorrow and see what suitable remedy they can provide me.

I recently bought WRT54G version even if my techie friends told me not to. Since I had old linksys units at home and at the office, I didn't mind getting another one for expansion purposes despite the numerous warnings. I guess my friends were right and I was wrong.

Wireless connection drops every 2 hours or so, and my connected ports seem to have problems with the DHCP assigned internal ip addresses..

Linksys is losing its touch. I'm returning the unit tomorrow.. damn it

Man, I'm glad I'm not alone. We purchased a WRT54G Version 5 router about a month ago. We had all kinds of problems but found out it was ultimately a bug in DHCP. We had set our WAN IP Address to an internal static IP. After about 2 hours it would request a DHCP address and the address indeed changed. I provided Linksys with a ethernet dump showing the router requesting DHCP and I have yet to hear back from them on a fix. We had to give our network a static dhcp entry so when the router requested a new address it wouldn't be something different. I think a lot of their problems center around the DHCP server on that box. It's really a poor implementation. Version 1 and 2 works much better.

hi i have had the linksys router you are talking about for about a week and i have had no problems with it. i have version 5 and i have updated the firmware to the latest and no problem i let you know if something comes up. email me if you like.

I just got a wrt54g v5 and it sucks. Talked to Linksys 5 times and they can't help me. How in the world do I open my ports? I've tried everything. Even "In order to resolve these problems we have had to set the ports up in port triggering as well as port forward." Yeah that doesn't work either. My head hurts. Worked on this all day. My God if it is a known issue couldn't they just tell me rather than making me do this run around THINKING it's fixable? Has anyone ever successfully opened their ports with this piece of crap? Thanks

For what it's worth, I was having connection drop issues with my wrt54gs router (firmware 1.50.5) until I adjusted the mtu setting to 1200 (from default 1500) and disabled the upnp feature. I have since enjoyed a steady Internet connection.

Yeah, I got the version 5 as well. In response to "whaddaya want for $50". Well, what I would want is for it to do what is SAYS it does. The port forwarding does NOT work on this model. I've read similiar complaints about this throughout the internet. Never got mine to work. What a pain.

We purchased a Linksys WRT54G v5 12/28/05 and had the Geek squad install it. It worked great for about a week, on 3 different computers. Then it started crashing, so Geek squad brought another one out. It worked fine for a couple of days, then the same thing started happening. G.S came out and changed a setting, said it was set on the same channel as the phone, microwave, etc. It worked for about 24 hrs.,then I lost the signal. Since then, our morning routine is to reboot, unplug the linksys, then the modem, and plug them back in as the computer boots up. This works for 24 hrs or so, then we start over. This is driving us nuts! Is it possible it is not the linksys router, but the modem? Or is it the router and I need to change the settings?

I also have a problem with wrt54g v5...when im downloading from a secure ftp (that uses ssl) download jsut stops after 10 minutes (falls down from maximum to 0kb/ps) and it just idles...after 2 minutes it reconnects to the ftp and resume the file...any1 have any solution to this? i have tryed setting MTU to 1200 and 1300 etc...but still no sucess

I have a wrt54gs v.2 and have had nothing but problems with trying to stay connected to the internet modem from Road Runner. It works for about 3-4 days then the Internet becomes so slow and sporadic that even google's search page won't open up.

I gave up and switched to D-link and have had no problems for 2 weeks.

Seems the Linksys wants to keep the same ip address from Road Runner no matter what. When I unplug the router and plug my computer directly to the modem I not only end up with a completely new address but a completely different network address as well. It's gotta be some sort of bug in the firmware or the way it renews it dhcp address. I have had the thing unplugged for 2 weeks. Plugged it back in for Sh*ts and Giggles and it says it has the same IP address. No Internet now. This thing is a piece of crap! Tech support has pretty much stumbled all over themselves so i have pretty much decided not to buy Linksys products from here on out.

Like many of the others who have responded, I bought a WRT54G 5.1 with version 1.00.6 firmware a week ago and have regretted doing so ever since. The internet connection drops after anything from 20 minutes to a day, the wireless likewise drops, the device locks up so badly you can't access the management screen - only solution is to pull the power and let it reset. Its a piece of junk and I only wish my trusty old D-Link 713P which I'd had for about 5 years hadn't packed in - they are tough to find here in NL otherwise I would have bought another.

I just hooked up this WRT54G v5 to replace my Firewall(FW) PC I built using 2K Server, a dual NIC setup, and a Software program called RASPPPOE to RRAS/NAT my DSL into my home network through a small 5 port Linksys switch. My DSL was(is) from Earthlink, my DSL modem is operating in bridged mode behind my FW and has been working super since 2003 on this home built system. I liked the Linksys switch and the dual NICs which I bought as a package deal called Home Network in a box on sale.
What can I say that hasn't already been said. Out of the box, I flashed the firmware to the latest version (as of 4/10/06) and configured it with the CD provided. My Network is entirely wired and I do not really use the wireless part although my daughter was going to connect with her LT had I decided to keep the router. The first thing I noticed was the marked slowness of my Internet page loads. It was like I had gone back to 56k dial up. For petes sake, you would think a product with such a reputible name would at least be as fast as my homebuilt sys but no way. No matter what I tried or configured, the slow speeds persist. I'm currently back on my home built system and happy for now but I still want to replace the PC router/Nat/FW system with a smaller hardware FW. Oh well, back to the store it goes. Guess someone will be able to use it for a boat anchor or fishing weight.
What a shameful waste of my time and money.

I bought the wre54g and I keep getting ip conflict errors. I am using the neighbors internet with their permission and i never had this problem when i was connecting with my d-link wireless ethernet adapter. What is the deal?? I have searched the web and have not been able to find any answers. Thanks for your help.

It is hard to believe this router, any router for that matter, can be this problematic. I thought I was going to upgrade my D-Link router. Boy was I wrong! I almost never got disconnected. I have switched back to my old D-Link router and I have a brand new WRT54G that I will probably never use. I have called them at least 20 times to try to get it working and they could not help me. As a matter of fact, this computer has a Linksys PCI adapter and it disconnects about 1 every 5 minutes. How can there products be so worthless! Is there any product or way to guarantee a better connection without all these hourly interruptions?

I just got myself a wrt54gs v4
I specifically asked to get a v4 (not v5) because you can install openwrt on these. Yet v3 are better, they have double the memory of the v4. With every version these devices get less memory and more bugs.What kind of evolution is that?

Same problems as everyone else this time with a WAG354G works just about OK with one laptop (still need to reboot from time to time) but using it as a bridge on a network is an absolute no no, when I spoke to linksys they recommended getting a WRT54GS v5.1 which judging by this page sounds like a bad idea, seems they know they're crap as they gave me a return code straight away...

I got WRT54Gv5 for use with PSP mainly. We had4 PCs wired to old Belkin router, occasional lockup/net drops with that but mostly stable. This Linksys one is total crap. Can't function properly for more than 12 hours if lucky. Disabled UPnP and any wireless encryption and using mac filtering only now. Bit smoother but we still can't have all 4 PCs plugged in at the same time (wired) OR use Azureus/Limewire/any PSP software.... Total shit.

I bought a UK WRT54GS v5.1 about two weeks ago, what a mistake that was, the access restriction don't work as intended i was planning to turn off all the kids internet at predetermined times dependant on age etc. But after 6 hours in online chat with the techies and days of trying every permatation.. it doesn't work. i was told to get it replaced but the next unit still useless but what really annoyed me is thetech support said they have no plans to release firmware to fix it.Hmm I can see an email coming to WATCHDOG or some other media attention soon :-)

I purchased a Linksys Router WRT54GX back in March 2005. When I got the Router I called tech support to update the Firmware and did so by there instruction and followed it correctly.

I called back to upgrade my routers to the new firmware in May of 2006. When I call the tech support person noticed that the rep that first assisted me back in "05" instruted me to upgrade to the wrong router version number (V2.0). She found this to be incorrect version for my router and told me they should have instructed me to upgrade to V1.0. Now they tell me that my router would be defected since it was upgraded to the wrong router version. Though DUE TO THERE ERROR they will not correct the situation they created by replacing the router with a new one so that I can install the correct firmware and have my router work correctly. THey told me once the router's version number is installed with the wrong firmware would make the router defective and not work correctly. Unless they correct this problem and send me a new router and have me return the old on after I recieve the new one so that I have no down time for the internet connection I am paying for, I will then NEVER purchas an other Linksys product ever again! I am very upset and frustrated with this situation they have created due to a mistake made by there tech person. Now they know of this problem I am getting the run-a-round each time I call. Bad business dealings, poor customer service and offered no resolution for THERE error.

Now it is a $200.00 paper weight. I also go the notebook adapter that matches with this router and that was another $79.00 and will not work to its full limits with anyother router due to the SRX feature.

Better Business Bureau will hear all about this. Goint to make sure of that tomarrow when I awake in the morning.

Signed,
Just Shaking My Head I Disbelief!

PS: My Router does not even work correctly now due to this problem. Be Aware!!!

Installed this router WRT54GS over the past weekend. 12 hours and 3 calls to tech support, the router works marginal at best. Slows to a crawl when a second computer tries to access the internet. After searching Linksys support pages, I come to find out Linksys does not support this router for AOL Broadband Cable service. What a waste of $80 bucks. BTW, the Linksys tech informed me I was wasting his time because all my computers were not on while trying to configure the router. Nice guy!!

I've had a WRT54G v5 since either last year. As others have mentioned, the thing drops its connection anywhere from a day to 2 weeks.

It also has other spurious things going on... For example, it's working right now, but I can't get to the admin screen. I enter my password and get a blank browser page (when I view the source, there is nothing between the HTML BODY tags). When I reboot, it's back to normal... for a while.

Note: Linksys posted a new firmware fix on 05/16/2006; I have not installed it yet.

I should ALSO note that I NEVER had to reboot my old Netgear wireless router (the only reason why I changed was because of the G speed and positive reviews on the Linksys). This is the last Linksys I'll probably buy.

Add me to the listed of disgruntled user. Every week I have to reboot my wrt54g v5 router and getting into the unit can be a real challenge sometimes putting the password in 3 or 4 times before I am successful. Back to SMC for me as I never had a problem with their routers.

After the first one just died and I couldn't flash the firmware. The second on is been nothing but a headache. It will drop internet but still dish out DHCP. Reboot and it will last anywhere from a couple of days to minutes. Don't get the WRT54gc either...!! Wish I had my old v2 back.

[Editor's note: Remember you can purchase a WRT54GL which is identical to the WRT54G v.4 -- which used Linux.--gf]

i bought version 5 in february. other than the admin screen not always comming up, i have no problem with this router. it works way better than the netgear that i replaced, my wireless laptop connects every time, which never happened with the netgear. the transfer speeds are the same everytime, the netgear got slower and slower. i haven't installed the .9 firmware yet. i just put .6 in a few weeks ago. i have a switch connected to the router with 6 computers, 2 printers, and a NAS connected. everything works.

bought wrt54 g eu v5 router in march firmware 1.06. Every week reboot. Every month problems with the connection. Two times reboot to fabric installation. No problem when I use it in open source so no security. When I even use Wep then I got problems. This thing is for the dump. I m waiting now for a new router robotics. Never buy Linksys again what a shame to sell this as a simple in use router.

I've been trying for days to get a stable wireless connection with my Linksys WRT54GS v5.1 (firmware version 1.50.8), which I bought online this week (June '06)

Because I'm a complete beginner at wireless networking, I assumed I was doing something wrong. I found the Linksys support team very helpful - after my first call, my connection remained stable for about 6 hours (my previous record was 20 minutes!), but it returned to randomly flickering on and off every couple of seconds before dropping entirely this morning.

I'm currently experimenting with swapping broadcast channels on the recommendation of the support staff, but I'm rapidly losing hope of success. I've been told that if channel swapping doesn't help, it is likely a hardware problem and I should return the router. It doesn't sound like I should expect much better from a replacement of the same model?

Junk router. I bought this early this week (June 12, 2006). Worked for about a day. Then no wireless connections at all. Only thing that works are the computers hard wired to the router port (Cat 5). Event that is unstable. Yesterday the router just crashed. A reboot did nothing. Then, after troubleshooting, I found that the router had completely reset to factory defaults. I did nothting and it reset. Linsys support told me to update my firmware. I went to their site, did this, still no progress. I'm returning the junk to look at a Netgear or Belkin. Linksys sucks! Save yourself a headache and don't buy ANY LinkSys products - unless you like pain...

I run the techsupport for my friends and family; my brother has a WRT54GC router with the firmware update (v1.02.8) and while we've had a quite a few network problems), my only sore spot is that even with the aforementioned update, Access Restrictions won't work. Anyone who knows how to get this working feel free to send me an email.

I have a wrt54gc. When I set up any kind of access restriction, it stops all ICMP traffic. Also the "allow" internet connection doesn't work, only the disallow. I'm unable to block ports because the section is grayed out when set to disallow for certain hours. Extremely bad programming. I cannot ping from allowed IP addresses if ANY policies for others are in effect. This thing is useless. I've not had the reboot issue though

I just (6/29/06) bought a WRT54GC as a replacement for a dying Asante router in another household in my family. I chose it over others since it was quite compact and inexpensive. I took it home and spent about 5 - 10 minutes getting it configured without incident. It was operating fine both wired and wirelessly in my home network.

I then checked the Linksys web site for an update and saw v1.02.8 was avalable (it had v1.02.5 out of the box). I downloaded the update file and connected wirelessly to the router, selected the file and began the update process. I watched the progress bar until it showed the upgrade process was completed and then the connection to the router dropped. I figured the router was restarting after the upgrade. I waited a couple of minutes and then tried to connect again - no luck. I then went into the room where the router was and saw the orange power LED on the router (it had not displayed anything other then green before this occurred). So - I reset the router with a paperclip. Then I tried powering it off and on again.

The router is no longer functional (it does act like a hub or switch). It appears that the upgrade routine has a defect, among others, judging by the posts here. BTW, I'm not a newbie - I've flashed quite a few similar types of routers without any problems before and have quite a bit of experience with much more sophisticated networking gear. It definitely looks like a product problem; this one is going back - for something NOT Linksys. One thing to note for others, I would suggest disconnecting the router from the Internet before beginning the update. It *mght* result in a better outcome.

Bought the WRT54GSv4 12/05 running SBC Yahoo DSL, everything was perfect until this week, switched to Roadrunner and everything works fine except for the laptop wireless when it's out on the porch.Have gone to www.linksys.com/check and downloaded all the yada, yada...seems as though I lose connection once a day so far, are there firmware updates for V4? linksys website says not for mine?

CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!! I consider myself to be fairly saavy with networking, and this router is driving me nuts. I have *always* bought Linksys due to extreme compatibility and ease of use, but this one has me stumped. I'm trying to build an internet server out of an old 233 mhz machine running windows ME, and the Bellsouth modem hooked up and worked without a hitch. However, when setting up the router everything came to a an abrupt halt. After setting the modem to bridged mode and entering the PPPOE info into the Linksys, the router cannot even see the internet. I spent 1.5 hours with a Linksys tech on the phone last night, and have been on hold for ONE HOUR today (still holding) for help. (Advice I received last night was the router was bad... got another one today and it's the exact same problem) I love their comment on their tech support line, "Due to overwhelming interest in our latest products we are experiencing unusually long hold times. We apologize for any inconvenience." Huh--yeah. More like, "Our l;atest products are pieces of sh*t, and it's overwhelming our staff of technicians--especially when you consider there's no way to fix many of the problems our users are experiencing."

Sorry to rant, but boy--I haven't been this frustrated since trying to set up networks with Windows NT 3.0. IMHO, although I have historically been thoroughly impressed with Linksys in the past, avoid this router like the plague.

I've used several linksys products in the past and found them to be very good, so with no hesitation I purchased the WRT54GC router after giving my old WRT54G to a friend. At first I did a simple MAC filter for my laptop and it was fine but then last week I added WPA and it would drop my wireless connection at least twice a day, even after I disabled all my wireless security. I went to flash the firmware to 1.02.8 (locally, not wirelessly) and now I have a nice brick.
This problem is pretty widely experienced, so why do they still have this firmware update on their webpage?! This is rediculous. I will never buy another linksys product again.

Well, I've had the WRT54G for about a year with no issues until today. I upgraded the firmware to 1.02.8 and suddenly my router is now a hub. I cannot access the admin screen; in fact 192.168.1.1 doesn't exist anymore. I would really rather not screw around with it and open it up, either.

I bought have three wrt54gx v2 on a network and every now and then, the power led and the wireless led turns off leaving the two ethernet les flashing. Unplugging the power usually fixes the problem but it is geting so intermittent that I'm thinking this is a fault in the firmware. These router are connected to APC UPS so I donot suspec that it is a power problem.

Has any one has similar problems. You can email me at tthomas@rossvet.edu.kn

I had exactly the same headache as some of the WRT54GC folks. Bought the router because I had enough of DLink. It came with 1.2.05 which only allowed 22 characters for DSL username, and mine with SBC was 24. Upgraded to 1.2.08. When it says 100%, the connection dropped and the power led started to blink. Poked the reset hole for 8 seconds according to the user's manual and power cycled it - the power LED went solid orange. The users manual also says I could TFTP a firmware to the sucker should upgrade fail, but I could not find the "tftp.exe" nor the "pdf" that supposedly came with the firmware. Called tech support and got the tftp from their site. Followed the instructions and tried, to no avail. Called in the second time after waited on the line for almost an hour, another tech answered the phone and started a survey on me (how many computer do you have? running win xp?)... then she asked me what's the IP of my DSL modem... for god's sake, the modem was never even conncted to the router before it went kaput! Yet she insisted me to tell her the modem's IP number "in order to learn your situation"... so I asked her why don't she ask me what year and make my car was. Finally she gave up and asked me to poke the reset button for 30 seconds... (the manual says 8 seconds)... but it didn't make a difference... then she asked me to ping 192.168.1.1... and I kept telling her it was "request timed out", but she insisted that I would run it for about a minute before she acknowledged that the router was kaput... what a moron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought linksys would be better than dlink, but at least my dlink DI-524 worked for 2 months...

My WRT54G v.5 keeps losing it's WEP security settings every couple of weeks and I find it wide open to anybody within range. I have no problems otherwise but this could be a huge liability if some foul hacker finds my signal.

I recently bought a WRT54G v5 as we use the WRK routers at work and they are great.

However I experienced first off a problem with the admin page, it just wouldnt load properly. Then I had to upgrade the firmware via a method not even described in the manual (used linksys support) to get it updated to the latest version 1.00.9.

Whilst this has fixed my problem the other thing the router keeps doing is randomly freezing up. I can be downloading a relatively small file 5 - 10mb and it will give me green lights on both the wired port my machine is in and on the internet connection.

I have seen others report this problem it just seems to drop connection or lock up and until you send another command via your browser it wont continue.

Just purchased a linksys WRT54GS last week (Jul 19, 2006). Using just the wireless to connect two computers to a cable modem. For sake of compatiblility all security is minimum. The unit appears to work ok for straight IP access (eg IE, firefox, etc). However, as soon as AOL is launched the linksys router freaks, craps on it's self and dies. Will be taking it back for a Netgear today.

The only problem we have is our ISP Dynamic IP-Address doesn't change at all with our WRT54GS (V2). Also because our Modem has its own Firewall too, we changed the Modem to Bridge-Mode in order for the Port-Forwarding to work correctly, otherwise the Modem filter the ports (not the router's fault, "double natting"). We had tried to see if the address change with different Firmwares, but no luck. Since everything related to the IP-Address works fine connected directly with the modem, I only wonder if others Modem's settings is the cause of the issue because of the Bridge-Mode.

I have had the wrt54g v5 for 6+ months. IT SUCKS. My web connection dies anywhere from every day to several times per week. I uses it to run a terminal server on xp mce. I will try to remotely connect to it and half the time my router has lost web connection. I have to wait till I get home and unplug it. Its horrible. I have updated firmware several times. Also sometimes the admin page is missing all the fields to change settings, especially if zonealarm is running.

I had a WRT54G v3 for 6 mths with no problems until the ports went out one by one over a couple of weeks. I purchased a WRT54GS v6 2 weeks ago and I had disconnects several times a day. Unplugging the power and replugging it in it would work great until the next disconnect. Talked to Support ( whatever that is) several times and they told me to return it. So now I have another WRT54GS v6 ( 2 days now) which is also disconnecting all the time. Just talked to support again and they told me to set MTU to 1300 and wait 20 minutes. Guess what?? Still disconnects. I set MTU to 1200 and disabled the UPnp as someone here suggested. Now I wait and see. If that doesn't work I'll call Support again for any other suggestions. I'll keep you guys posted........Brian

I have very similar problem with my newly bought linksys WRT54G v5. Yes its a piece of sh**. It keeps disconnecting at unspecified intervals (normally between 1-2 hrs), talked to the chat support twice with no improvement. I also exchanged it before, and keep getting people telling me that its a configuration problem. Being a system engineer, I am able to figure out how to test it myself after many different configuration, I start to think it is a defective design in the router.

I'll make this short.....after a 1 hr a Linksys "Tech II" admitted they do have a know router hardware problem with some routers and to bring it back for another. I'll be bringing it back alright and I'll definately be coming home with a different router brand. The next router would have been my 4th (Linksys) in 6 months... Strike three Linksys your out for now!!

had problems with 3 of the linksys routers 2 WRT54GS and 1 WRT54G.connection from my VSAT kept dropping.flashing the WRT54G with DD-wrt firmware seems to solve the problem.I would return the 2 WRT54GS 'cos their memory is too small

I've had a wrt54g v3 hanging off a cable modem which provided wireless access for my home office for a year without having a single problem. I purchased it, plugged it in, and never thought about it again. It ran continuously for more than a year without a single reboot or ever having to be power cycled. It has provided me with one of the best experiences I've ever had with a piece of commodity consumer computer technology.

A couple of days ago I saw a wrt54g v5 for $50 new and purchased it to replace the existing one (I wanted to use the existing one in another house). Unfortunately the new one has been a nightmare from the minute I plugged it in. The NAT timeout on UDP is 90 seconds and there is no way to change it. My VOIP service has been wrecked. I can't seem to make a VOIP call and use Internet based applications at the same time without performance issues. And forget about it when my daughter cranks up her laptop on top of that - the thing simply seems to choke at times. Also port forwarding and triggering doesn't seem to work. And I had to power cycle it once in the first 24 hours. I feel like I've wasted half my weekend. Relative to the v3, the v5 seems to be a piece of crap.

WRT54g V5 = Junk This model has half the ram of the other wrt54g versions and locked firmware. I have to reset this thing under heavy loads two/three times a day. I am a bandwidth heavy user and expect some chokes but this is rediculous. I have tried changing MTU/DHCP/ everything I can think of. When in DHCP mode the router works okay, to a leisure user it would be fine. But if you are serious about your internet experience keep away like the plague. I'll post my video of myself pulverizing this thing with a sledgehammer when I get a netgear draft-n

This is the second WRT54G v5 that we have had in the last 3-4 weeks and it simply stopped working after working fine for a few weeks. We are unable to establish a wireless connection and cannot even use the wired ports. In another location I have been using an older Linksys wireless router for a few years and it has been working great. I have tried everything possible to correct the problem, updated firmware, reset, etc. You have to stay away from this model if you want a reliable router. For me, I will be staying away from Linksys as any company that would put a product in this condition on the market and keep it there after seeing all of these issues, is not someone you would want to do business with.

I bought a Linksys WRT54GS-EU version 5.1 and upgraded the firm to version 1.50.8. Although the possibilities of this router are great, it seems to crash a lot. Sometimes it's a matter of hours, sometimes a matter of days and in the best case a matter of weeks. Furthermore, the system is even more likely to crash if you are "playing" with the configuration. This is realy unfortunate :-( I hope new firmware will be the solution, but I'am afraid that the real reason is a hardware issue...

I had a NetGear router a while ago and I had to power-cycle that thing like mad, so I got a v5. Setup was fine, firmware is great, rarely have any problems. Wireless connections are perfect, we can go quite far away from it and still recieve reception. I'm constantly running torrents and playing games online, and I've yet to have a problem other than the need to power-cycle it every month or so, but recently I haven't had to power-cycle it at all. It's been totally fine for the past 3 months or so.

I have the same problem with the v5. It inexplicably dropoffs without reason. I thought it was my connection line but when I unhook the line and plug it directly into the computer, it works fine. Is there any router that is actually reliable.

Wow, I just wanted to see if anyone else had DHCP issues with Linksys gear, this has confirmed my worst suspicions. I have nothing but trouble getting DHCP to work over wireless, to the point where I hardwire as many devices as I can.

As a suggestion to you all, Linksys is owned by Cisco, and as a Cisco employee (an embarrassed one at the moment) I can confirm that customer satisfaction actually matters to Cisco but apparently not to this subsidiary. Contact Cisco Customer Advocacy and pitch a bitch, I plan to!

Well i have had alot of the problems mentioned above.With the v5.1 router. I was about to give up then i looked once more for a solution to the crashing hanging problems.And thank god i found it the dd-wrt micro can now be flashed to this router using 3 diffrent bin files and flashing it 3 different times i done it and it works great. I also managed to run a command that enables 16 bit of mem. I now have a router thats reliable and perfoms as it should. pls e-mail me at aaronbradbeer@hotmail.com if you get stuck.

I brought my WRT54G v5 and started setting it up.
I had a bit of trouble with making it work with my other router/modem combo but eventually got it working with some weird dns settings.
Anyways once it was up everything was good... until my first random reboot (power light flashes for several seconds and all connections are dropped).
Not long after, it happens again. And again. Customer support didnt help. It's eased up now but still happens sometimes (but more when someone uses Limewire) lucky I don't play an online game anymore or else I'd be really screwed.

I have dd-wrt micro but haven't tried it for fear of bricking my router.

Talk about one's mileage varying... I bought a WRT54G v5 almost a year ago, and up to the last approximately 2 weeks ago, it worked flawlessly. Over the last couple weeks I've had intermittent issues with either wireless connectivity or broadband router functionality. At present, it allows you to connect wirelessly without an issue, except that it WILL NOT issue an IP address to anything. It won't issue one even to a wired connection. And while its own internal PING and TRACEROUTE diagnostics seem to work, no computer however attached can get beyond it's setup page. I can't even pull up my CM's setup pages. I have reset it via the menu system as well as the button, in addition to power-cycling it. I seperately obtained the latest (1.01) firmware and updated it several times. All of this to absolutely no avail. So this thing is 3/4 bricked, and I have no explanation why. As soon as I can track down my receipt, I will pursue them for a warrantied replacement. If anyone on here has any suggestions... let me know. Thanks!

Well after reading every single one of the posts and seeing that this post has been up for awhile i had the same issue with the WRT54GC power led flashing and reseting so I disconnected the router and updated the firware manually works partially now except on thing, it won't let me do anything at all in port forwarding and everytime I try and download something like an update for a game ect... It will all of a sudden disconnect and then I have to unplug the power and reconnect it again to get back online. Everything I have heard on here I agree with fully linksys WAS a good company but I think I personally prefer belkin over this p.o.s. now. Got a Belkin router bout a week after this issue started and everything works like a charm, even tho I'm connecting using a linksys wireless card. Imagine that HAHA

I purchased a Linksys WRT54GS v5 about 4 months ago and it has been nothing more than a nightmare.
It keeps disconnecting and I have to go into the router settings to reconnect. The access restrictions dont work either :*( Should have looked it up before I sat here for an hour re entering the info.

I started off with a Dlink...then Rogers (ISP) said I needed a better router, they told me to get LinkSys. So in late August 2006 I got the WRT54G V5 and had nothing but problems. Talked with LinkSys over a 4 day period to try to fix it and nothing. They said send it back (at you're expense) <---this I think is a joke when its their fault and it wasn't even a month old. I phoned Staples who took it back and gave me another one. SAME problems.... called LinkSys again (as they told me it was probably just my unit) and I informed them that #2 is doing the same thing. Disconnection CITY every 2-3 minutes which is BS. So back I go to Staples and this time they replaced it with WRT54G V6 and same crap just a different version, different day. Not IMPRESSED at all to say the least.

3 Units and they all have done the same thing and within a 2 month and a bit period. August 29th through to today. Due to my work I've had to keep it as I can't go without it...BUT...I am contacting LinkSys again today and my provider as enough is enough. High Speed Internet charges and paying good money for the LinkSys doesn't necessarily mean you get great service. LinkSys I'm sure is going to ask me to send it back at MY expense which I would rather smash it with a hammer then to pay one more penny on these...they are CRAP!!!!

I just got a linksys router WRT54GS with speed boost Firmware Version: v1.50.9 but I have to constantly reset the router 1-4 times a day I thought for a while that someone hacked into my system but know I believe that it is the router. Has anyone tried to put a new firmware onto their router besides a linksys firmware? I know that it voids the warranty but if anything goes wrong you could just load back on linksys firmware again. is their a way that they can tell if it has had someones else's firmware on it?

I bought a WRT54G v5 to replace a Linksys BEFSX41 v2 for my mother and it has been working fine for months. Recently she started complaining that she couldn't connect to AOL. I told her to power cycle the router and I would check it when I came over for Christmas. When I came and took a look at it, I found out that it had been factory reset. She swears she didn't hit the reset button. Interestingly, another WRT54G that my former house mates bought (under my recommendation), which I configured for them, had also undergone a spontaneous factory reset a few months ago. My mother's WRT54G also started exhibiting strange behavior: intermittently crashing when she goes into AOL (it stops responding, and pings to 192.168.1.1 die) -- always at the same point (I watch the performance using ping -t 192.168.1.1 while testing). The BEFSX41 (a wired router resembling the WRT54G, but without the wireless capability) was replaced because connecting/disconnecting patch cables while the router was on would cause it to crash (where all of its interface indicator LEDs would light-up and stay on). I had used an earlier model Linksys routers for years, so I thought they were reliable. After this experience, and reading all of these posts, I think I'm going to dump them.

a few months ago i bought a Linksys WRT54GS v5. i have never previously had a router because i just bought my laptop, so this might be user error. When i first went through the setup, i messed up at first but then redid it correctly. However, it said my laptop, a dell inspiron b120, could not configure to the router or something like that. i was using the dell 1390 expresscard that came with it. furthermore after trying to fix the problem the internet on my main computer went down. after 3 hours on the phone with my internet provider, we fixed my main computer, but i am now forced to click an icon in order to connect to the internet even though i use high speed. i still can't get my wireless to work, and i'm afraid to hook my router back up in case it messes the internet on my desktop computer up again.

I just bought the WRT54GR on Jan 20,2007.Taking me two days to set it up and end up with an unhappy message:UNABLE TO LOCATE YOUR ROUTER ON YOUR NETWORK.---ALL THE TIME during the set up.
HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED! LINKSYS SUCK@#%$?&*(+_(&*?&?%$

I have bought two Linksys routers. Both have made me reset my router 5 to 6 six times a day. I upgraded firmware and talked to customer service for the past three days. They were of no and help, one lady even ignored my pleas to not make me update firmware AGAIN. It was a complete pain to put all my settings in again. I have a computer connected wirelessly and wired and neither work half the time. I'm completely fed up.

I bought nine Linksys WRT54G v5, and when I connect more than 1 on the switch, my corporate net almost stop, I can see when I ping the gateway a lot of "request time out" messages", When I disconnect the linksys fron the switch my net works fine.

What is power cycling? Is that just turning off the power on the router? My prob w/ the Linksys WRTG54 v.5 is that I can't access my own network! It says cannot find server. The router is hooked up to my desktop/cable modem and I access the internet using my Dell Latitude laptop. I was connecting to it fine for a couple of months but now I can't connect to my own damn router/broadband service. If anyone knows what I need to do Pleassssssssssse email me @ nurit.folkes@gmail.com. Thanks in advance you guys. :-)

I've been using a WRT54G v5 for over 9 months now, and it is a nightmare! Whenever a second computer tries to get connected it resets! If you keep on trying to connect, it resets over and over again, then if you are lucky, it connects. I thought it was a b/g mixed mode situation, so I bought a brand new Linksys g standard card for my wife, but nope, it is no different. I changed the security settings, etc. But still nope. My friend has another v5 copy, and he has the same issues, too. I knew that it was because of this stupid router. I'll dump as soon as possible!

I've had the WRT54G v5 for a bout 6 months and with the latest Jan. 2007 firmware update... today my router factory reset for no reason other than it completely lost all it's configured settings. I was disappointed I didn't get a v4 or lower with the more memory.

Also in the past, I've had the router lock up for no reason during when there was a good amount of Internet activity and had to re-power it to get it working again.

I found this looking for more information on a root cause and fix for this. It disconnected all the wireless clients, reset the wireless security and log on password. Including resetting ports being forwarded and firewall settings.

I also noticed with the latest update, the firewall setting disappeared, so the route doesn't seem to have a stateful firewall configuration either? I went ahead and installed the only version of DD-WRT that will work on this thing and it crashed often too when there was heavy traffic... seems to be a memory/performance issue?

Probably won't buy another Linksys router again. The SMC router I lent out will be coming back, it was solid.

I've had a WRT54G V5 for a while now, at least a year I suppose. I haven't had any issues with it at all really. It always runs fine with my P2P apps. Port forwarding and DMZ setup is as easy as it gets and always works. I have noticed that sometimes my configuration page (through the browser) will stop functioning. It doesn't respond at all, and I have to reset the router using the button on the back. BUT, since Linksys provided you with the ability to save the configuration of the router to a file, and then restore it from that file, it really hasn't been an issue. I might be down for a few minutes as it reboots, but after that it works great again for a few months. I'm wondering if the only people that post comments on these sites are the ones that have issues, since that is typically how these threads are found (searching for help).

I've purchased the Linksys WRT54GX few months ago, and facing too much problem, it always disconnected the users if using high bandwidth.
Please help me guys if you know how to troubleshoot this device.

I have the v8 version.
This is really a piece of junk. Over the last 5 years I have used at least 3 Linksys wireless routers. The first one was working OK then suddenly its wireless part stopped functioning so I had to buy a second one. Just like another Amazon user said in his review. This router only support wired connections. Whenever I connect my MacBook to it wirelessly, sometimes in seconds most often in a few minutes the router just freezes up, all my PC's connected to it will lose internet connection. The only way to get out of this is to do a manual restart. Yes I updated firmware, but it doesn't help.

I bought a WRT54G V5 to replace the same model V1. There has been a lot of unstable connections, connection loss, unable to reconnect.

Each time after a few days to sometimes weeks no connection from any computer (only WLAN) was possible and resetting the router solved this problem. I guess its some kind of buffer running full. Now an automatic power switch turns the power off 1 minute 2 times a day.

The unstable connection remaines, typically at startup winxp the wlan modem connects, loses connection after a few minutes. When immediately reconnecting manualy again good connection for a long time, only disconnecting a few times a day seemingly in a random manner. This then is only solved by disable and enabling the wlan card.

FYI to that chap who had a WRT54GX-v2 firmware 2.00.19 and had the Power LED go off and the switch ports keep flashing while the whole unit does not send any packets
.......... you are not alone. I have had 2 of these cr@p units now and I believe that this issue is a fundamental engineering problem. Linksys probably figure that they will just bury their heads in the sand and hope that the continual stream of new products will decomission the user base.
I bought linksys because I expect this rubbish from belkin, netgear, D-Link not from a cisco owned company!!!!

My Advice to anybody is not to buy this model and even consider not buying linksys if they have this poor approach to engineering.

I have had 20 or so wireless units over the years and to be honest they are all as bad as each other for reliability.

I am still hunting around he open source community to see if I can find an alternate firmware for this Realtek RTL8651B chipset. This is a CPU Lockup issue as the switch is managed in CPU.
Its an instability issue because I have also seen it lockup during firmware upgrades rendering the unit useless. Linksys did replace it within a week. But again that unit has the lockup issues.

worked (VERY SLOWLY compared to cable/dsl/satellite modems, ive had all 3) for a couple months, then stopped after firmware update. it actually connects wirelessly but whats a connection without traffic?

obviously i know enough to update the firmware, not like it was working any better before, but take it from this RIDICULOUSLY long forum:

if you REALLY want to try a linksys wrt54g router, go with v4 or lower, unless you know enough about static ip's. apparently knowlegable users haave great success when v5 or v6 is properly configured...

dont walk into office depot and but this crap like half of america did. it appears that linksys has sealed their fate.

WRT160N v2 - works okay as long as you downgrade software to version 8 from August of last year. Firmware released in late 2008 (version 11 I believe) breaks the modem. See linksys user forums. This has been reported consistently since December 2008 and they still have not come out with a fixed firmware.